#027 Achieving Big Audacious Goals for 2025

Achieving Your Big Audacious Goals for 2025

In this episode of the Bright podcast, host and money mentor Melissa guides wedding creatives through setting and reaching big audacious goals for 2025. The discussion focuses on essential principles such as paying yourself first, investing in personal growth, and improving your relationship with money.

Melissa emphasizes creating a structured plan with measurable goals and actionable steps to realize these ambitions. Listeners are encouraged to expand their mindset, invest in their health, and take strategic actions to build a profitable and fulfilling business. The episode concludes with an invitation to join the free Momentum Money series for additional support and insights.

DOWNLOAD Big Audacious Goal Worksheet

00:00 Introduction to Bright Podcast
00:38 Understanding Money in Your Business
00:54 Pay Yourself First
02:13 Invest in Yourself
03:50 Improve Your Relationship with Money
04:52 Setting Big Audacious Goals
06:35 Creating Action Steps
08:32 Measuring Success and Taking Action
10:08 Conclusion and Next Steps

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Transcript

Welcome to Bright, the podcast for wedding creatives that want to earn more and have a life and business that they love.

Of course your beliefs are different from my beliefs, but what we probably have in common is a money story that keeps us from reaching our full potential. And this is why I'm here. This is my mission, to help you see that it is your thoughts around money that create the results in your life. 

Hi, I'm your host and money mentor, Melissa. I make understanding money in your business easy. Each episode we'll be talking about finance, growth, mindset, and real strategies for your creative business. Are you ready? Let's get started.

Welcome to the big audacious goal worksheet episode. Before we start on the three ways to get your big audacious goals out there for 2025, I want to go over a couple of principles that will help guide you. 

They helped us, so I know they will help you, too. Pay yourself first. This is a topic that deserves more than a few minutes, but I want to get you thinking about it now. Not sure if you're like me, but I spend what I have. And guess what gets affected by that? Our bottom line, our profit margin. I will find ways,

I say I because I don't include Keith in this, but I will find ways to increase our expenses because maybe we think we need some new software or a new lens. So rather than spending from what is left over after we pay ourselves first, not our salary, but I'm talking about our profit, then I will force myself to be a better budgeter.

I think harder about what I'm spending money on approaching your business this way will force you to become a more disciplined spender, which in turn means you make more money because you keep more money. This is an area where we need to expand how we view our business.

 If your business is truly a business, then you have to get paid more than your salary or the scraps left over, or why not just be a salaried employee somewhere else with less stress and less hours. We need to think bigger and more future focused.

Being a wedding professional and having a business isn't about just getting by. This is about setting up a business that works for you. Not one that you work so hard for, for not enough. And you could quite possibly end up getting discouraged or even hating your business.

Next, Make this the year that you invest in yourself. This will change the trajectory of everything. I'm not talking about upgrading your car or your house. I'm talking about learning. Maybe you dive in to learn more about business, self improvement, your relationship with money, Read books, lots of books, take courses, listen to podcasts, invest in a business coach, or join a group coaching program or a mastermind.

Your brain is your biggest asset. To have a better business and a better life, you need to become a bigger version of yourself.

And this doesn't have to be expensive either. Whether you borrow books from your friends or the library, listen to podcasts for free, or invest in a coaching program, the return on the time and money investment is substantial because you grow. Personal growth will help you expand your mind into believing in what's possible for your business and for your life.

 And one other thing I'm going to throw in. Invest in your health. When Keith and I started to really focus on being deliberate with exercise, with our gym, and with the community at our gym, we were showing up for us. And when this became a non negotiable calendar item, our business trajectory changed.

We changed. It's impossible to not feel great after a gorgeous walk at CrossFit, a trip to the gym, a swim, or riding your bike. Our mind became open to new thoughts, new possibilities, and new ideas. And we felt great. Our energy changed, And this becomes an attractive trait that potential clients and vendors that you work with respond to positively, which translates into booking more clients and making more money.

Last thing is we jump into setting our big audacious goals. Improve your relationship with money. I see you, I work with you, I am you. My money stories held me back for years. These stories can still show up from time to time, but now I have the tools to recognize how I'm getting in my own way. And this isn't just about making money, because you can make a ton of money, but if you don't hang on to it or do the right thing with it, all your hard work was for naught.

Of course your beliefs are different from my beliefs, but what we probably have in common is a money story that keeps us from reaching our full potential. And this is why I'm here. This is my mission, to help you see that it is your thoughts around money that create the results in your life. Okay, enough of that for the moment, and now back to the original topic.

Is your business stuck or needs a little kickstart? Join our free Momentum Money series. After this core training, you'll start turning heads and get that push. You need to make more money and book more of the clients that you want to work with. Join for free link in the show notes below. 

Grab your journal and get ready to answer these questions.

Number one, your why. Why do you have this business? Let's create your big audacious goal that aligns with a business you love and that loves you back. Why do you wake up every day? What drives you? Your why is everything. What do you want your business to look like in 2025? This is your manifesto, your purpose for having your business.

Get as clear as you possibly can. Write down how much money you want to make, the products that you're going to offer, how much you're going to charge, what your average sales are, the hours you're working, vacations you want to take, money you're investing in your future.

 And remember, we aren't basing our future on our past, so sit with this for a bit. Don't rush this as it is super important. Be honest with yourself. What do you truly want your business to look like? Number two. What priorities align with your business? Choose three that align most with your why.

For example, when I recently did this exercise, this is where I started.

Number one, I wrote down to create 1, 000, 000 by helping 10, 000 wedding creatives create a business they love. Number two, to create a signature course that helps creatives understand personal finance, figure out their money story and how it is getting in their way and earn the money they want by working smarter. And not harder. 

Number three, I wrote down to grow my community of like minded professionals so that we can share our experiences and learn from each other. 

Lastly, number three, plan and execute, create measurable goals around each priority, create measurable goals so that you can gauge whether or not things are headed in the right direction. How do we attack this? First, I'm going to brainstorm and list my perceived limitations to reach my big audacious goal. Think of at least 15 things that will get in the way of your goal.

Trust me, your brain is really good at coming up with reasons why you can't succeed. Second, I'm going to take my limitations, my list of things I think will get in my way, and I'm going to turn them in a positive direction and make a list of every step I can think of that will help me get started. With my big audacious goal purpose, my why, I will shake things up, think out of my comfort zone and challenge myself to create a better version of my business and work towards my big goal.

And when I say my, I mean, we, Keith and I do work together on this, but as I'm the one speaking, it's just easier for me to say my list. Each of these as a step, consider that your big audacious goal is at the top of the stairs. Now, each step will be one of these limitations turned into an action step.

Using us as an example, for us to reach 10, 000 wedding creatives this year, our first limitation could be that we only have 1, 400 people on our new email list. So, right now, I can't reach 10, 000 wedding professionals. So, I need to create a few steps from this limitation. First, I need to expand my reach. I need to get more people on my email list. I need to grow my podcast and our YouTube numbers. We need to create better content, maybe a free workshop or a blog post, something that I can quickly create these action steps, , so as I do this for each limitation that I have, I will quickly see a list of steps I need to take to get to my goal. And of course, the big important part is that I actually Start to take action. It is a great first step to create a big goal or outcome that you want.

But if you don't start taking uncomfortable action, then it will just remain a dream or a wish. Our job here is to turn our big goal into a reality in 2025 and beyond by taking massive action.

have an annual target for my big goal so that I can measure my efforts. The first week, I will choose one outcome that I need to create in order to get my big goal off the ground. Then I will create an action plan based on my own objections, or what I think is impossible.

I will do this for the first month or so. I can start to measure what is working and what isn't, assess where I have failed and where I have succeeded. Rome wasn't built in a day, so neither will your big goal. Maybe I'll gauge success for the first month with how many email subscribers I add.

Or, for someone else, maybe they want to book five clients in January at a certain price. The target will be different for all of us, year goes on. So if 1, 000, 000 is my goal, I don't expect that in the first few months, but I know that I need to be selling something that will eventually get me to that goal.

Just a quick break from the episode. If you prefer to watch rather than just listen, then check out this episode on YouTube. You can find us at the bright growth channel. Don't forget to subscribe and get notified every time. There's something new.

I already have proof in our wedding photography business that we can make multiple six figures. So I will use that confidence to help me keep pushing towards this new goal. And sometimes you have to borrow this confidence from someone else, someone that has already done what you want to do.

They are proof that it can be done. And I'm not going to get mad at myself. If I don't hit my exact goal, the most important part of this exercise is becoming a new version of yourself, one that has expanded their thinking and expanded their possibilities. This is how real growth starts. We will be doing this together, , checking in each week to see how everyone is doing.

And each week, as we get closer to the end of the year, we will be discussing more tactics and mindset to help you achieve your big audacious goal in 2025. Thank you, and make sure you download the worksheet. See you next week.